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Is Your College Debt Stopping You?

Do you have debts that you incurred from paying for your college education? If your answer is yes, you are in good company. Educational debt is stopping many millennials from either buying their first home or upgrading to a new home when they have outgrown their existing home. And when they cannot sell the exiting starter home, that makes that home unavailable for the next wave of buyers. And this is a major cause of the scarcity of available homes in this country. But that’s a story for another blog post.

Let’s get back to the debt issues many millennials are facing. Many students who attended college are deeply in debt. The typical millennial home owner has student debt over $41,000. And their average income is only $38,000. This debt can stop entire generations from owning a home and achieving the American Dream.

There are more ways in which these debt-ridden graduates are affected. They are being forced to postpone other decisions that affect their lives also. They are reluctant to make career changes, and are often unable to save for retirement. Many need to take on a second job or work in jobs they don’t want. Some are holding off on marriage and raising a family.

Not only recent college graduates are affected by the student debt. Many of the older millennials are affected also. Saving for the down payment is difficult and many have concerns that their income may not be high enough to qualify for a mortgage while keeping a financial cushion.

I wish I had an answer, but I’ll leave that to someone who is smarter than me.